Christie urged to separate himself from Sandy relief fund

The superstorm Sandy relief fund headed by Governor Christie’s wife is getting ready to distribute its first $1 million in grants. And that’s prompting questions that traditionally come up when politicians sponsor charities.

With first lady Mary Pat Christie at the helm, the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund has raised $32 million, largely from big corporations with ties to the state. Governor Christie had said he wanted the relief fund, formed in the immediate aftermath of the late October storm, to be devoted to New Jersey’s needs. Since then, he has regularly solicited donations for the fund at events and through social media.

But Christie maintains that while he’s grateful that major corporations have contributed to the fund, no one should expect any benefit from him. And Mary Pat Christie added that the entire focus has been on raising money to help storm victims.

Others, however, question the composition of the fund’s board, which includes several members of the governor’s inner circle, and speculate that the charity could be seen as a way to curry favor with the governor by those whose motives have less to do with helping storm victims than with seeking an advantage from government.

The board includes William Palatucci, a close friend and political adviser to Christie; attorney Jerry Zaro, a Democrat who counts Christie as a friend and attends Springsteen concerts with the governor, and Rich Bagger, a biopharmaceutical executive who served as Christie’s chief of staff and was appointed by the governor to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s board of commissioners.

In addition, a staff member at Mercury Public Affairs LLC has volunteered to provide free marketing to the relief fund. The firm counts Michael DuHaime as a partner; he’s the governor’s campaign spokesman, worked on his first gubernatorial run in 2009 and served as a member of Christie’s transition team after the defeat of Democrat Gov. Jon Corzine.

Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the watchdog group Public Citizen, said he doesn’t question Christie’s motivation, but said the Republican should distance himself from the charity, especially during an election year.

“The governor should disassociate himself and his campaign and his family from the fund altogether. Then it would be a genuine charity,” he said. “From what I see here, this is not a genuine charity.”

Christie is certainly not the first public official to start a charity. And this isn’t the first time that critics have raised questions about whether an elected official’s close association with a charity can blur the lines between philanthropy and politics. The concerns run from campaign-finance issues to the boost such an association can provide to a politician’s image.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo created a Sandy relief fund for his state. He was criticized because the charity’s fund will be controlled by the New York Office of Homes and Community Renewal. In addition, four of the five board members are Cuomo campaign fundraisers.

The watchdogs stand largely alone in the public expression of concern about Christie’s relief fund. Leading state Democrats, including gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, declined to comment for this story. Christie — who’s riding a historic wave of popularity in the wake of the storm — has called on Democrats and Republicans to put partisanship aside, and both sides have agreed not to politicize the recovery effort.

Both the governor and his wife dismiss the criticisms as unfounded.

In a recent interview, Mary Pat Christie said the notion of donors influencing her husband never has been a consideration.

“I didn’t think about any of this stuff,” the first lady said. “My husband called me the Thursday after the storm and said we have to do something and asked me to take the lead. I just went down and started phoning donors, pretty much 24/7 until the year’s end.”

“Am I grateful to those people? You bet I am,” Chris Christie has said of the corporations that have contributed. “If I see them, will I express my gratitude? But they know, because they know me, that it will not one iota affect the way I execute my job as governor.”

Fund officials say the non-profit is operating as openly as it can, pointing out that even though charities are not required to identify their donors, the relief group has posted the names of most of its major contributors on its web site. The four largest — all at more than $1 million apiece — are major corporations: Hess Corp., AT&T, Toys “R” Us and J.M. Eagle, a Livingston company that describes itself as the world’s largest manufacturer of plastic and PVC pipes.

In all, the fund has received more than 20,000 donations, many of them from individuals, officials say.

Holman, who helped craft New Jersey’s pay-to-play law when he was a senior policy analyst at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, said people who have already contributed the maximum allowed to Christie’s campaign fund or who are restricted from donating because they do business with the state, could instead turn to the charity.

“This is exactly where the wealthy special interests will then go throw money in order to buy favor with the politician who is associated with the non-profit,” Holman said.

He said the charity also can be used to promote the governor’s image — Christie is displayed prominently on the group’s Facebook page hugging a victim of the storm — in an election year.

The relief fund is listed among others on numerous state websites advising potential donors where they can give money to benefit those hurt by the storm. In one instance, it is singled out: The Department of Community Affairs sent a letter to towns cautioning them to make sure charities are set up properly and monitored. The letter gave the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund as an example of a proper charity.

Rutgers University political science professor Ross Baker said Christie is no different from other politicians promoting a cause that’s dear to them — but he came short of endorsing the arrangement.

“It’s very common for politicians to have favorite charities for which they raise money and it’s no big secret that donors make contributions to those charities to ingratiate themselves with the person in office,” Baker said. “Some senators have schools of public affairs named after them and solicit support for them.”

For example, he said, Michigan Democrat U.S. Rep. John Dingell, the dean of the House of Representatives, holds a golf tournament every year to raise money for a conservation charity.

Baker then added a caveat: “So what Christie is doing is not novel in any way unless you have moral qualms for people making charitable contributions with ulterior motives.”

Mary Pat Christie said the fund has had great success reaching out to ordinary donors.

“We have commitments of $32 million from over 22,000 donors — as small as a 58-cent donor,” she said. “One kindergartner emptied his bank and sent it in. Donations have come from 18 different countries and from all over our country. A World War II veteran in Australia sent $100 Australian with a note saying, ‘I remember when the Americans were there for us.’Ÿ”

Officials say the relief fund was set up to focus on long-term recovery efforts — leaving immediate relief work to other charities.

The fund has set a Feb. 15 deadline for local relief committees to finalize their applications for a share of the first $1 million in grants. Locally, that application has come from the Bergen County Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster.

Most of the $289,594 the group is requesting would pay staff to oversee rebuilding and repair efforts in Moonachie, Little Ferry, Carlstadt and South Hackensack, said Janet Sharma, chairwoman of the county group. Passaic County wasn’t among the eight counties targeted by the charity for relief.

“That includes a project manager, a case manager supervisor, a construction supervisor and a volunteer coordinator,” said Sharma, executive director of the Volunteer Center of Bergen County. The center has taken the lead in organizing the county’s efforts to help storm victims.

The first lady said the relief fund wants to start getting grants out the door as soon as it can once the first round of applications comes in.